Hard drive not recognized anywhere on PC

[MartyTheGamer]

So. I have an issue where there is no sound on my computer. I tried a CMOS clear up to fix it, which ended up giving me a BSOD about the boot device not being found or something. I thought since I had two hard drives plugged in it was confused between the two, so I took out the secondary one (where I kept some important files from my previous PC build) to see if it would help. It didn't. But after I loaded "Optimized defaults" in the BIOS it worked. But then. After I plugged in the second hard drive back, it doesn't appear anywhere. Not in My Computer. Not in Disk Management. Only appears in the BIOS with a blank name and apparently 2 million MB's of storage (It's 500 GB). I tried switching it to different slots. I tried swapping the SATA power cables and the other ones that connect to the motherboard and it still didn't work. It's something wrong with the drive itself or the computer not recognizing it, and I don't know what to do.

Previous to the CMOS clear, the hard drive worked fine.
In the advanced settings in the BIOS, it shows up with a blank name and "(0.0GB)"

Specs: Motherboard ASUS P8Z77-M
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 3GB
RAM: 8 GB (Corsair + old from previous PC)
PSU: Super Flower sf-550p14he

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Marty!

This sounds pretty unfortunate! 🙁 Do you have another PC where you can plug that secondary HDD? I'd strongly advise you to do so and check how it would appear there. If not, you should also attempt to see how the hard drive would get recognized if you plug it in a different SATA port, since the swapping of the cables didn't work. I'd also suggest you go to Device Manager and see if it's listed in the disk drives there as well.
If you manage to get it detected anywhere in Windows, I'd advise you to run its brand-specific diagnostic utility and determine the health and SMART status of the drive.

Let me know how the troubleshooting is going!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[MartyTheGamer]

Hey there, @Marty!

This sounds pretty unfortunate! 🙁 Do you have another PC where you can plug that secondary HDD? I'd strongly advise you to do so and check how it would appear there. If not, you should also attempt to see how the hard drive would get recognized if you plug it in a different SATA port, since the swapping of the cables didn't work. I'd also suggest you go to Device Manager and see if it's listed in the disk drives there as well.
If you manage to get it detected anywhere in Windows, I'd advise you to run its brand-specific diagnostic utility and determine the health and SMART status of the drive.

Let me know how the troubleshooting is going!
SuperSoph_WD

I agree with check whether it is shown up in disk management? Many times it happens that usb is dead and nobody notice. Plug different USB port and check whether it works or not. If your are using windows check for driver problem:
Run command> “devmgmt.msc” > press enter. Look for yellow exclamation mark on devices. After finding yellow exclamation mark then surely it is a driver problem. Right click >yellow exclamation mark > Find error message there.

Well, I did write it does not appear anywhere in disk management. I just did a complete clean re-install of Windows and it still doesn't appear. I'll have to put some Windows on the PC I built from the old parts and try it there.
I also wrote above that I did try different SATA ports (well I said slots but nvm) and it didn't change anything no matter how much I switched them around.
By the way, it's not an external hard drive. It's an a proper internal 3,5" SATA HDD drive.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Okay then, @Marty, you should most probably try the HDD on the PC you built from the old parts and see what happens. If you have access to another currently working rig, you could plug the SATA drive there and check how it would get recognized and make sure you test it, once you get it detected anywhere.
I hope everything works out and you are able to access it, at least long enough to back up your precious files from it.

Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[The Paladin]

have you tried to plug that drive as the main hdd on your pc, leaving it alone and boot in bios to see what it sees it as then ?

 

[MartyTheGamer]

For future refference in this thread, I handed the hard drive for inspection and they told me it is simply broken, and would require an expensive procedure in a lab to recover the data.